BUTTERCUP FAMILY. Ranunculsiceae. 



There are many varieties of Clematis, or Virgin's Bower, 

 familiar to us all, both East and West, and general favorites, 

 widely distributed and flourishing in temperate regions; 

 perennials, woody below, which is unusual in this family. 

 Usually they are beautiful trailing vines, which climb over 

 bushes and rocks, holding on by their twisting, curling 

 leaf-stalks. The flowers have no petals, or only very 

 small ones, but their sepals, usually four, resemble petals; 

 the stamens are numerous. The numerous pistils form a 

 round bunch of akenes, their styles developing into long 

 feathery tails, and these gray, plumy heads are ver 

 conspicuous and ornamental, when the flowers are gone 

 The leaves are opposite, which is unusual in this family 

 with slender leaf-stalks, and are usually compound. Som 

 plants have only staminate flowers and some only pistillate 

 ones, and the appearance is quite different, the flowers wit 

 stamens being handsomer. 



Near the summit of Mt. Lowe, and in I 

 similar P laces we find this beautiful vinel 

 Clmatis clambering over the rocks. The flowers 



lasi a ntha measure an inch and a quarter to over two 



White, pale- inches across and they vary in tint from 

 almost pure white to a lovely soft shade oJ 

 California pale-yellow, the handsome clusters form- 



ing a beautiful contrast to the dark-greet , 

 foliage. The stamens and pistils are on different plants h 

 The flowers, leaves, and stems are all more or less velvetj j 

 and the akenes have tails an inch long, forming a head I 

 about two inches across. The flowers are often so numerl 

 ous as to make conspicuous masses of pale color on canyor ; 

 sides, in the Coast Range and Sierra Nevada MountainS| 



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